Launched in 2016, the initiative aimed to dismantle a sophisticated global drug trafficking and money laundering network associated with Hezbollah’s Business Affairs Component (BAC), a unit known for managing the organization's financial activities.
[1][2] The investigation was part of the larger Project Cassandra, which was an umbrella initiative encompassing about 20 operations targeting Hezbollah's global criminal support network.
[4][5][6] Harb, a Lebanese-Colombian national, was involved in coordinating cocaine shipments from South America to the Middle East and Europe, collaborating with those cartels.
[1] The operation exposed Hezbollah's involvement in transnational organized crime, highlighting the group’s reliance on illegal narcotics trafficking and financial fraud to sustain its political and military activities.
Project Cedar underscored the integration of terrorism financing and global criminal enterprises, prompting calls for enhanced international cooperation to disrupt such networks.